Deadly Viper Assassination Squad

This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page.

Evil Organization
Full Name	Deadly Viper Assassination Squad
Alias	D.V.A.S
Origin	Kill Bill: Volume 1
Foundation	Unknown
Headquarters	Unknown
Commanders	Bill (founder; leader)
Agents	Beatrix Kiddo (Black Mamba; former member) O-Ren Ishii (Cottonmouth; former member) Vernita Green (Copperhead; former member) Elle Driver (California Mountain Snake) Budd (Sidewinder; former member)
Powers / Skills	Combat expertise Marksmanship Gunsmanship Swordsmanship
Goals	To assist Bill and gain wealth (succeeded) Kill Beatrix Kiddo and stop her quest for revenge against them (failed)
Crimes	Mass murder Conspiracy Organized crime
Type of Villains	Assassins

The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (alias DeVAS) are the main antagonists of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill film series.

They are an elite group of assassins led by their gangland boss Bill, who ordered them to assassinate former member Beatrix Kiddo - also known as "The Bride". They apparently succeeded until The Bride surfaced and resolved to kill Bill and the other DeVAS members, including Bill's brother Budd; Yakuza queenpin O-Ren Ishii; retired assassin Vernita Green; and contract killer Elle Driver altogether.

History

Before the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad was founded, Bill and Budd grew up without a father. Their mother's friend Esteban Vihaio, a pimp lord, acted as a father figure for the two brothers at the time. O-Ren Ishii was left an orphan after her parents were killed by Japanese mob boss Matsumoto.

Bill, founder and leader of the DeVAS itself.

They were, as their name suggests, an assassin squad, run and managed by Bill. He is known to have had romances with Kiddo (his girlfriend and protégée, whom he impregnates) and Elle in the past.

At the time of The Bride's revenge, the group has largely disbanded. Since then Vernita has been living as a housewife with a daughter, O-Ren became the undisputed ruler of the entire Yakuza underworld in Tokyo, Budd is a bar bouncer, Ellie continues to work for Bill in his assassination requests, and Bill ended up being a retired killer. Elsewhere The Bride has just recovered from a four-year coma, which started when the others gate-crashed her wedding rehearsal and killed the wedding party, but mistakenly left her alive. Bill delivers what he believes to be the coup de grâce as revenge for walking out on him. Their daughter is delivered while she is in a coma, and is being raised by Bill without her knowledge.

Although never explicitly said, it is widely held that Black Mamba is the most lethal and skilled of the DVAS after Bill himself, making her the deadliest woman on the planet. Many of them wield katanas, and in the case of Bill and Budd, forged by Hattori Hanzō, an Okinawan sword maker of legendary standing, who comes out of retirement to make his final masterpiece, The Bride's samurai sword. Bill, The Bride and Elle Driver are trained by Pai Mei, a Chinese martial arts master who is later poisoned by Elle Driver.

Besides their training in the martial arts, they are also fluent in several languages, well-versed in the use of firearms, and skilled in various assassination, espionage, surveillance and weapon combat techniques. Some members seem to have personal specialties. O-Ren seems to favor ranged weapons (a sniper rifle in her flashback and throwing darts in the confrontation at the House of Blue Leaves), Vernita favors close combat using knives (as stated by the Bride, quoting Bill) and Elle seems to favor poisons (she used this tactic to kill Pai Mei in a flashback, attempted to use it against the comatose Bride, before Bill stopped her and arguably used it against Budd by way of the black mamba). Bill, Budd and Kiddo never demonstrate a preference for any specific weapon or tactic, although Bill's codename (Snake Charmer) and the DVAS almost exclusively female membership may imply that Bill's specialty is his way with women.

Kiddo kills Green, Ishii and Bill in her quest for revenge. Budd is killed, ironically, by a black mamba which Driver puts in a suitcase filled with money. It is left ambiguous whether Driver survives; she is left blinded and locked up with the black mamba that killed Budd, ranting and screaming in an isolated desert trailer. At the end of the film, all the characters who have been killed have their names crossed out on Kiddo's list, but Elle's name instead has a question mark over the top of it, suggesting that she could still be alive.

Members

Leader & Founder

• Bill (alias Snake Charmer) (Deceased)

Members

• Beatrix Kiddo (alias Black Mamba, The Bride, Kiddo, Arlene Machiavelli) (Active and redeemed)
• Elle Driver (alias California Mountain Snake) (Unknown, possibly deceased)
• Budd (alias Sidewinder) (Deceased)
• Vernita Green (alias Copperhead, Jeanie Bell) (Deceased)
• O-Ren Ishii (alias Cottonmouth) (Deceased)

Associates

• Crazy 88s (Surviving members presumably disbanded or chose a new Leader after O-Ren's demise)
• Sofie Fatale (Active but an amputee)
• Gogo Yubari (Deceased)
• Johnny Mo (Deceased)

Trivia

• Although their name suggests that the members of the team are code-named with vipers' names, the black mamba and the California mountain snake do not belong to the viper family; the black mamba is an elapid and the California mountain snake belongs to the colubrids.
  • Elle Driver's codename, California mountain snake, is a shortened form for "California Mountain Kingsnake" and is the only non-venomous snake in the squad; all other snakes are venomous.
    • Though non-venomous, the kingsnake is a predator to venomous snakes as it eats them and has high resistance to their venom.
    • Ironically, Elle is the only member known to use poison as a primary means of assassination.
• In Pulp Fiction, Uma Thurman's character Mia Wallace describes a show she did a pilot for, "Fox Force Five", which was never picked up. The characters she describes match the female members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad with the inclusion of Sofie Fatale